


auchenmare

by lunar_skyz



Series: waiting patiently through spiritless lenses [2]
Category: Original Work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-20
Updated: 2021-03-20
Packaged: 2021-03-21 20:15:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30027264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunar_skyz/pseuds/lunar_skyz
Summary: Living in a poor, remote coalition of villages, Idris is a simple farmer struggling to make ends meet. It's been a whole year since his family has fell to calamity, and his relationship with even his own mother is tattered.That is when "The Question" is asked. By his own cousin. It's a simple question really - the answers are either "Yes" or "No".But the consequences of such a question are tremendous...
Series: waiting patiently through spiritless lenses [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2208744





	auchenmare

**Author's Note:**

> characters featured: Idris Newsome, Amaury & Sybil Cherith  
> story genre: realistic fiction  
> story theme: the burdens of family  
> date created: 3/13/2021  
> TWs: heavy mentions of family infighting and divorce, discrimination because of eye color

IDRIS was a bit too fast in getting up and leaving the kitchen table. He didn't have the willingness to eat - his stomach felt too empty to be hungry. He knew that he would later regret leaving his dinner on the table - his relatively poor family needed every piece of food that they could get their hands on. The rice crop for this season wasn't doing very well - the rain had practically drowned the year's yield and most of the grains wouldn't make it to harvesting season. 

Why had he left food on his platter? Well, it was because he needed to get away from his very house. His house, a place where familial love was meant to cover Idris in it's warm embrace and say that everything was okay. One day, this house might just radiate that beautiful yet imaginary glow again, just like it did two years ago. Two years ago, everything had been okay...as okay as a peasant's life could have been. 

And then his brother had perished due to the plague that had struck the town. Before he left the house, he looked at the large wooden bowl that his brother had coughed up blood in. It was slightly stained with blood even though it had been washed, and it lay lonely on the kitchen table. 

Idris sighed and left the house, immediately feeling the cold sting of a winter breeze whisper it's soft song against his exposed face. His house stood near the very center of the village, seeing that he was slightly below middle-class standards. In the village's eyes, the Newsome family - which was Idris's family - was well-off. In the faraway city's eyes, he was poor. Due to farming rice and various other crops, Idris's village had intertwined with a few other villages in order to share crops and trade items - and their distance from the nearest city consisted of the fact that they needed large plots of land to keep growing crops, and Idris was sure that the city didn't like large amounts of soil and water near their sleek houses. 

Idris decided to go to his cousin's house and maybe go have a chat there. He wasn't necessarily a talkative person, but what was he to do? Go back to his home, with his parents having loud arguments at the dining room table? No. That was currently not an option. So, whenever Idris felt that tension was brewing in the Newsome family, he would leave the house and go somewhere else. Anywhere was better than his own home. Idris's village - Auchenmare - was small, yet it had joined a coalition of villages. It was insignificant, and yet Idris felt like that was a good thing, even though he was sure that plenty of people in Auchenmare felt the opposite way. 

After walking for a while, he came across a lavish - or at least, what the villagers would describe as 'lavish' - two-story home with a porch at the front. Both the exterior and interior consisted of wood with a special walnut look. On the porch was a small female and a taller male with distinctive hazel-colored hair. Black hair and brown hair were common in the village, but special light-colored shades were considered an anomaly. Idris himself had black hair and chocolate-colored eyes, the most common appearance in the entire coalition. Idris stood against one of the porch's pillars and watched the hazel-haired male urge his siblings to go and play outside with all the other kids in the marketplace. 

Idris was close enough to hear everything, so he decided to listen in. After all, the other wouldn't mind, he wouldn't be talking about important matters to his little sister, right? 

"Amar, all the other kids don't want to play with me!" the younger sister complained. "They just say that I can't play with them, and then they leave me all alone. I'm getting tired of playing by myself!" She had a small basket woven out of rice straw in her hand and she was swinging it around rather violently. Her wooden shoes hit the surface of the wooden pouch loudly as she skipped across the porch. 

The older brother, Amaury, sighed and replied, "Sybil...dealing with people...well, it’s complicated." The younger sister, Sybil stopped hopping on the porch when he said, "If they ignore you, then try to distract yourself using hobbies or something. Why don't you go spend some time with Grandmother?" Sybil quickly ran into the house and Amaury got up from his chair. "Hi, Idris." Amaury smiled. 

"Hello, Amaury." Idris replied. He walked up the porch and leaned against the railing. "How's life treating you?" Amaury looked down at the floor. Idris could hear his heavy breathing. 

"Yeah...I'm okay. Don't worry about me, I'm sure you have enough to deal with." Amaury replied, a tinge of uncomfortableness in his tone. "The city can wait. It's just..." 

"The harvest this season is horrible, yes. You need to collect money, then. And you need to get the villagers accustomed to city life." Idris picked up a woven basket that was balanced on the porch's railing and looked inside. Several dried figs rattled inside and Idris couldn't shake the feeling that at least a few people were going to starve to death. 

Idris looked at the hallway and remarked, “Sybil’s getting bullied again, isn’t she?” He could just see her face when she got older, when she would be told that she was discriminated against because of something like eye color. Heterochromia was seen as a bad omen amongst the village, because they believed that evil spirits had swapped out Sybil’s eye with evil intentions. 

“Just the usual. I’m hoping that she’ll get over this and then she’ll be more confident when she gets older.” Amaury replied. He extended his hand, and Idris tentatively handed over the bowl of dried figs. “Thanks. Those took a long time to dry - five days. He walked inside and Idris heard a bit of shuffling - shelf doors closing? - before Amaury walked back outside. 

“Here you go.” Amaury told him. “I know you have a coat already, but Sybil and I made this especially for you.” 

Idris carefully took the package and murmured, “Thank you. The war is getting close to our coalition, and I’m sure that we’ll soon have to flee.” 

Amaury sighed. “I know. We’re lucky enough as it is, our village is so remote that the war hasn’t affected us up until now. Do you have...an escape plan?” 

“...My family is too chaotic to even have an escape plan. I just plan to run. Soon. I’ve actually got supplies stored already.” Idris looked away, knowing the question that was to come. It was kind of haunting his mind, actually. 

“That’s pretty smart. But, do you plan to leave your family behind?” 

“...No. Not if I can help it.” Idris looked down at his feet. “But if my life is truly in full danger, I probably will.” 

Amaury glared at Idris, but he didn’t say anything but, “Fine. If that’s how you see it, then alright. It’s your choice. I hope you don’t regret it.” Amaury turned around and started walking back inside his house. 

“Good luck.” Idris called after him. 

Amaury didn’t reply.


End file.
